Off-spinner
Narine, playing in only his second One-day match for T&T, grabbed six
wickets for 48 runs from 11.3 overs and leg-spinner Badree also collected a career-best four
for 34 from his allotment of 12 overs, as the Red Force dismissed Leewards for
94 in 25.3 overs.

Kieron
Pollard then struck four fours and two sixes from 20 balls in the top score of
34 not out and William Perkins made 22 to race T&T to victory with 213
balls remaining in their Group-B match in plu-perfect conditions at the Guyana
National Stadium.

The
result revived the Red Force’s chances of reaching the semi-finals, after they
stumbled in their first match last Thursday, when Combined Campuses &
Colleges beat them by five wickets at the Everest Cricket Club.

They
gained eight points from this victory, scoring the statutory four plus two
bowling points for dismissing Leewards for under 150 and two batting points for
scoring at a rate above six runs an over.

This
defeat effectively put Leewards out of the running. They now have minus-four
points, following their second straight heavy defeat, after Jamaica crushed
them by seven wickets last Thursday at this venue.

It
was the second straight match that Leewards were dismissed for under 100 and
the second time that they also allowed their opponents to score at a rate above
six runs an over.

Narine and Badree gained very little assistance from the pitch, using mainly
guile, flight, and variations to bamboozle the Leewards batsmen.

Chesney
Hughes made the top score of 25, but sadly for the Leewards, the new playing conditions
that allowed T&T captain Daren Ganga to employ two bowlers for a maximum of
12 overs meant that there was no respite and the two spinners bowled unchanged.

Narine
made the breakthrough in the sixth over, when left-handed opener Austin Richards Jr
was bowled for 14, after he had started positively with a couple fours off
Dwayne Bravo’s only over, the second of the innings.

Badree
gave T&T a firm grip, when he had Montcin Hodge caught at mid-on for six
trying to take the aerial route to the boundary and trapped Leewards captain
Javia Liburd lbw for one playing defensively forward off successive balls, leaving the opposition
wobbling on 29 for three.

The
rot continued unchecked, when three more wickets fell for just 12 runs in the
space of 48 deliveries, as Narine and Badree practically squeezed the life
out of the Leewards’ batting.

Badree
trapped Steve Liburd lbw for a duck playing back and across in the 11th over,
Narine bowled Orlando Peters neck and crop with either an arm ball or doosra,
and Jahmar Hamilton was bowled for one when he was beaten in flight moving down
the pitch to Badree.

There
was the usual batting bravado from the tail-enders with Justin Athanaze and
Lionel Baker each hitting six, but the Leewards batting again came up short.

Typically,
Perkins gave T&T a flourishing start, getting off the mark with the
one-legged pull through square leg made famous by West Indies batting legend
Gordon Greenidge.

He
was just getting into the swing of things, after sweeping the first ball of the
fourth over – by West Indies leg-spinner Anthony Martin in his second over – for
four, pulling the third ball for another four, and lofting the fifth over
long-off for six, when the feisty bowler responded to the challenge, bowling
him behind his back with the last ball of the same over.

Justin
Guillen looked fidgety at the crease and was caught at square cover off Lionel
Baker for six driving loosely in the seventh over, but Pollard came to the
crease and did what he does best, putting T&T firmly on track for a victory
about 40 minutes before the time regularly scheduled for the interval between
innings.

T&T’s
batsmen got a little careless as they chased the bonus batting points and
Martin snared four for 49 from seven overs.

But
Pollard made sure T&T did not have to worry too much, formalising the
result when he swung a delivery from off-spinner Justin Athanaze through
mid-wicket for the last of his fours.

T&T
face Jamaica on Monday at Everest to ultimately decide the group winner in the
final round of group matches, when Leewards are down to meet CCC at this venue.

The
tournament continues on Sunday, when hosts Guyana meet co-defending champions Barbados
at Blairmont in the final round of Group-A matches which also sees Sagicor West
Indies High Performance Centre face Windward Islands at the Everest Cricket Club.

Barbados
and the HPC will be hoping for the same glorious weather that blessed the matches on
Saturday in the hope of getting a full game played to challenge for a place in
the semi-finals.